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Posts Tagged ‘czech republic’

The Prague Spring

Tuesday, August 21st, 2018

August 21, 2018

On Aug. 21, 1968, 50 years ago today, troops from the Soviet Union and its satellite Communist states invaded Czechoslovakia. (The Soviet Union comprised modern-day Russia and other republics; Czechoslovakia is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia.) For many years, Czechoslovakia was one of the Soviet Union’s most loyal Communist allies. In early 1968, however, the Czechoslovak government in Prague, the capital, introduced liberal reforms and worked to grant its citizens greater freedom. The liberal movement came to be known as the Prague Spring. For months, it appeared that Czechoslovakia might shrug off Soviet dominance and embrace the non-Communist West. The Soviet Union refused to allow this, however, and crushed what it considered a rebellious uprising. The Prague Spring was a key event of the Cold War, the intense rivalry that developed after World War II (1939-1945) between groups of Communist and non-Communist nations.

Czech youngsters holding Czechoslovakian flags stand atop of an overturned truck as other Prague residents surround Soviet tanks in downtown Prague on Aug. 21, 1968, as a Soviet-led invasion by the Warsaw Pact armies crushed the so-called Prague Spring reform in former Czechoslovakia 30 years ago. Credit: © Libor Hajsky, CTK/AP Photo

Citizens of Prague gather in peaceful protest around Russian tanks and soldiers during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia on Aug. 21, 1968. Credit: © Libor Hajsky, CTK/AP Photo

Czechoslavakia, which was created at the end of World War I (1914-1918), came under Soviet control at the end of World War II in 1945. A Communist government took power in Prague in 1946, and it repressed all political opposition. In 1955, Czechoslavakia joined the Warsaw Pact, a treaty that held most Eastern European nations in a military command under tight Soviet control.

Click to view larger image In 1945, after the end of World War II and German rule, Czechoslovakia gave Ruthenia to the Soviet Union. In 1993, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, made up of Bohemia and Moravia, became independent nations. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Click to view larger image
At the end of World War II in 1945, the Soviet Union kept control of the territory it gained from German rule, including Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia, the main territories of Czechoslovakia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

During the 1960′s, the Czechoslovak economy was suffering. In addition, many Slovaks wanted greater recognition of Slovak rights. In 1968, Alexander Dubček became head of the Communist Party. Under Dubček, the government introduced the Prague Spring liberal reforms, a movement also called “socialism with a human face.” The press was granted greater freedom, and citizens were given a limited role in politics.

Click to view larger image Czech Republic Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Click to view larger image
Prague is now the capital of the Czech Republic. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Leaders of the Soviet Union and other European Communist nations feared that Dubček’s programs would weaken Communist control in Czechoslovakia. They also feared that people in other Communist countries would demand similar reforms. As a result, about 250,000 troops and 2,000 tanks from the Soviet Union (including small numbers of Bulgarian, East German, Hungarian, and Polish troops) invaded Czechoslovakia on the night of Aug. 20-21, 1968. To prevent a slaughter, the Czechoslovak government asked its people not to resist, but many stood up to the Soviets anyway. About 100 people were killed, hundreds more were wounded, and the Prague Spring came to a quick end.

Dubček was removed as head of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and most of his reforms were reversed. Political opposition was effectively silenced until the late 1980′s when democratic reforms began taking place in the Soviet Union. In November 1989, large numbers of Czechs and Slovaks gathered in the streets of Prague to call for an end to Communist rule. Less than a month after the protests began, the Communist government resigned. Non-Communist leaders gained control of the government. The end of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia occurred so smoothly and peacefully that it became known as the Velvet Revolution. On Jan. 1, 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were created to replace Czechoslovakia.

Tags: alexander dubcek, cold war, communism, czech republic, czechoslovakia, prague, prague spring, slovakia, soviet union
Posted in Current Events, Government & Politics, History, Military Conflict, People | Comments Off

Vaclav Havel, Soul of the Czech Nation, Dies

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Dec. 20, 2011

Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright and dissident (disagreeing in opinion, character, or motive) who came to represent the soul of the Czech nation, died on December 18 at age  75. Havel helped lead the Velvet Revolution, which brought an end to more than 40 years of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia without a single shot fired. United States President Barack Obama noted, “His peaceful resistance shook the foundations of an empire . . . and proved that moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon.”

In plays and essays written through the 1960′s, Havel illustrated the absurdities of life under Communism. Although the government banned the publication or production of his works, Havel continued to speak out against government oppression. As a result, he was jailed several times and lived under close secret-police surveillance for decades. After the fall of Communism in Czechoslovak in 1989, the new national legislature elected Havel president. On his first day in office, Jan 1, 1990, Havel stated in his inaugural speech, “We have become [under Communism] morally ill because we are used to saying one thing and thinking another. . . . We have learned not to believe in anything, not to care about each other. . . . Love, friendship, mercy, humility, or forgiveness have lost their depths and dimension.”

Czechoslovakia before the country split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1993. World Book map

As president, he presided over Czechoslovakia’s transition to democracy and a free-market economy as well as its peaceful split in 1993 into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. After serving as president of Czechoslovakia for 3 years, he served as president of the Czech Republic for 10 years. Under his leadership, the Czech Republic joined NATO and the European Union.

Additional World Book articles

  • Capitalism
  • Back in Time 1989 (Czechoslovakia)
  • Back in Time 1990 (Czechoslovakia)
  • Back in Time 1993 (Czech Republic)

 

Tags: czech republic, vaclav havel, velvet revolution
Posted in Current Events, Government & Politics, People | Comments Off

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